The Levi's brand fall campaign suggests getting dressed is an empowering action, continuing its message for the fourth year of “Go Forth,” and adding, “This is a pair of Levi’s.”

The 2012 fall/winter "Go Forth" campaign pitches 18 to 34 year-olds on donning their daily armor to take on the world every day: “This is a pair of Levi’s, buttons and rivets and pockets and cuffs, and the thread that holds it together.”

The language is a call to action: “You follow your heart, follow the leader, you’re the leader. Are you joking, are you breaking, are you shaking? You’re the next living leader of the world. You’re a kid. Holding onto the thread. That holds it together. This is a pair of Levi’s.” Cue Twitter hashtag, “#GoForth.” And Levi's own call to action, tying a thread to its corporate commitment to take a stance on HIV/AIDS.Continue reading...

Funny or Die has tapped a droll troupe of Hollywood talent — Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, Tracy Morgan, Chloe Moretz, Marisa Tomei and Isaiah Mustafa — to join forces with Bono's anti-poverty group ONE on a new campaign, part of a larger global initiative to reach "the beginning of the end of AIDS" by 2015.

The star-studded video from Funny or Die asks viewers to sign a petition on ONE to reverse proposed budget cuts to the life-saving AIDS program, PEPFAR, and fulfill America’s commitments to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.Continue reading...

Puma, the German shoe and sportswear company that was founded in 1924 when Rudolf Dassler split out from his brother Adi’s Adidas, is betting big on Africa.

A new Wilderness Collection of apparel, footwear, and accessories is “inspired by the landscape and climate of the continent,” according to Ecouterre.com. The goods are also “primarily sourced and manufactured in Kenya in collaboration with Wildlife Works.”

More than 80 percent of the apparel will be made out of fair-trade cotton, with the goal of being 100 percent by next year, with 20% organic and African cotton making up the difference.Continue reading...

(RED) has announced (RED)Music, a place to buy exclusive tickets and packages from top artists and a centerpiece of the organization's inaugural (RED) Rush to Zero campaign, running June 1-10 to raise funding and awareness to deliver an AIDS Free Generation by 2015.

“The virtual elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV is part of the eight Millennium Development Goals, which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS by the target date of 2015,” said the press release.Continue reading...

Giving back is proving is good business and good for morale at Starbucks. The brand just named a new corporate community officer, and reported the results of its second annual Global Month of Service, in April. The global commitment to "30 days of inspiring service" yielded 700,000 individual acts of service in 34 countries, covering cities from Beijing to Berlin to Nashville, with local volunteer efforts including:

• 400 Starbucks partners and families across China gathered in Beijing to restore local community parks and teach residents of the Hujialou North community how to be more environmentally aware and incorporate “green living” tips in their every day lives.Continue reading...

The Michael J. Fox Foundation made headlines last fall with a limited-edition collection of Nike shoes inspired by the actor's Back to the Future character. The high-profile auction raised $9.4 million for the foundation, the largest private funder of Parkinson's Disease research in the world.

Fox's foundation is now heading into its own future with a new look and feel, one prompted by its humble founder, who wants to take the focus off himself and shine a spotlight onto the community of people helping find a cure for P.D.

Founded in 2000, the Foundation has just unveiled the first logo refresh in its history. "While our mission remains exclusively to speed research progress, we are increasingly a portal to engagement for the PD community at large — not just researchers but patients, their loved ones, physicians and members of the general publich who are inspired to give back," writes Holly Barkhymer, the organization's VP of marketing and communications, in a blog post.

The logo refresh features an updated font, simplified color scheme and a few tweaks to its iconic fox, who now features a dashing tipped tail and has added an ear. "We adore our fox, and it was very clear to us that the fox would remain," Barkyhmer told brandchannel. "One of the goals of the refresh was to make sure that people saw that the fox is a fox with a second ear and more defined tail. He's still fleet, intuitive, cunning, resourceful and smart."Continue reading...

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University are joining the ranks of elite universities jumping into the burgeoning MOOCs — massively open online courses — business. The schools' new partnership, dubbed edX, is also spurring the boom in online video education.

Stanford, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan recently partnered in Coursera, a commercial company with $16 million in venture capital.

In a truly social move, Facebook has added a timeline tool that lets its 161 million members in the U.S. and 30 million U.K. members share their organ donor status with friends in order to facilitate connecting potential donors and recipients.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News for Good Morning America that aired today on Mayday appropriately, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the life-saving commitment: "What we hope will happen is that by just having this simple tool, we think that people can really help spread awareness of organ donation and that they want to participate in this to their friends. That can be a big part of helping solve the crisis that's out there."

The plan — outlined in a co-bylined piece by Zuckerberg and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on the ABC News website — is to leverage social media to encourage more organ donors. With the new Facebook feature, users can register as organ, eye and tissue donors and link to the donor registry in their state as well as post videos or status updates about their decision to be a donor as well as indicate their wish to donate upon death.Continue reading...